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Technology Stocks : Disk Drive Sector Discussion Forum
WDC 236.39-2.8%Jan 23 9:30 AM EST
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To: Mark Adams who wrote (1873)12/21/1997 11:47:00 AM
From: Thomas Haegin  Read Replies (1) of 9256
 
Business opportunities for RDRT

Mark,

I may be posting old news here, but I'll take the risk: Bob Blair of IR at WDC recently told me that WDC buys all their read-heads from outside suppliers. WDC doesn't manuf. any heads themselves. However, Blair did not say specifically which cos. they were buying from. To this regard there was a post by Pierre on the WDC thread recently, I think it may heve been his reply to my discussion with Blair that was reposted here also.

As I understood Blair, the only thing that WDC does manuf. themselves is 40% of the media (magnetic platters) they use. For this they have plant in CA. They also design the electronic parts/components of their HDD drives (I guess chips and circuits, etc.), but they outsource the manufacturing process for their electronics also.

Viewed from this perspective, I assume that WDC can move more quickly in times of lower demand/overcapacity, but may feel more supply pressures/price disadvantages when demand rises strongly again. At present I would think that WDC is at a slight advantage over their more integrated competitors.

But I'm taking a guess only. I'm not in the DD business myself.

Thomas
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